More than one year in the making, construction starts Monday on a new interchange by Easterwood Airport at FM 60 and FM 2818.
The TxDOT Bryan district office also reports FM 60 will be closed between Turkey Creek Road and Research Parkway for ten days during spring break. That’s in order to replace pavement without placing workers and motorists in danger of each other and to save the cost of this portion of the project taking several weeks of nighttime closures.
The more than $14 million dollar project is expected to take two years and one month to complete, weather permitting.
This is the first of two TxDOT projects in the area. The second, widening FM 2818 between FM 60 and George Bush Drive (FM 2347) to six lanes, has not been funded yet according to project information on the TxDOT website.
Additional information from TxDOT’s Bryan district office:
Beginning Monday, March 6, 2017 the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) contractor will start a project to reconstruct the FM 60 at FM 2818 interchange.
Wednesday night (3/8/17) TxDOT’s contractor will have various lane closures from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. to install a storm drain.
Then beginning at 11:59 p.m. Friday night, March 10th though 6 a.m. Monday, March 20th, FM 60 will be completely closed from Turkey Creek Road to Research Parkway to allow for a full depth pavement reconstruction.
The depth of the excavation, and the allowable space across the bridge, in addition to the multiple interchanges in the area, would make it very difficult to safely construct with adjacent vehicles at highway speeds.
The alternative is several weeks of nighttime closures that would result in higher project cost and more traveler delays.
This short term closure during Spring Break, while inconvenient to drivers, will allow the contractor to reconstruct the pavement more efficiently while providing added protection for drivers and the workers in this tight space.
Motorists wanting to get to Easterwood Airport during this time will need to use HSC Parkway or F&B Road and then take Turkey Creek Road into the airport.
This entire project will rebuild the bridge and intersections into a Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI). This will be only the third interchange of this type in the State of Texas.
The $14.1 million dollar project should take approximately 25 months to complete.
More information about the project and a video simulation of the final interchange can be found on the TxDOT website at: http://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/projects/studies/bryan/fm60.html